The rupee, in your hand
Paise: the rupee divides into a hundred paise, although you will rarely see them now.
The 2,000 note: withdrawn from circulation in 2023, so if anyone offers you one, politely decline.
- Currency
- Indian rupee, ₹ or INR
- Notes
- 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 500
- Coins
- 1, 2, 5, 10, 20
- 2,000 note
- Withdrawn from circulation in 2023
- Closed currency
- Hard to buy outside India
- A closed currency: you cannot easily buy rupees outside India, and there are limits on how much you can carry in or out.
- Getting your first rupees: almost all our guests arrive without them and use an ATM or exchange counter in the arrivals hall, or get them from us on the first day.
- Leaving: spend what you have or change it back before you go, keeping the receipt from your original exchange, which you may need.
- Small notes are precious: shopkeepers, rickshaw drivers and stallholders often cannot change a 500 note for a small purchase, and tips are far easier with tens, twenties and fifties.
Cash, cards and phones
- Visa and Mastercard
- Hotels, restaurants, larger shops, airlines
- American Express
- Many hotels, less widely elsewhere
- UPI
- Usually needs an Indian bank account
- Cash
- Tips, temples, rickshaws, stalls
- Travellers' cheques
- Leave them at home
Cards
Widely accepted: Visa and Mastercard credit and debit cards at palace hotels, good restaurants, larger shops, airlines and many monuments.
American Express: accepted at many hotels, less widely elsewhere.
- Contactless: increasingly common.
- Before you go: tell your bank you are travelling, carry two different cards and keep them in separate places.
- Know your PIN: some machines ask for it even for small amounts.
- Surcharges: for large purchases, ask whether one applies before paying.
UPI and phone payments
What it is: UPI, the Unified Payments Interface, is India's system of instant phone payments by QR code.
Everywhere: you will see QR codes at tea stalls, on vegetable carts and on temple donation boxes.
- The catch: it normally needs an Indian bank account and phone number, which visitors don't have.
- Wallets for visitors: prepaid UPI wallets set up with a foreign passport and loaded with an international card have been offered to some visitors, but availability is limited and the rules are still changing.
- Ask us first: we will tell you what currently works. Otherwise, cash and cards cover everything.
Cash
Every day: for tips, temple offerings, rickshaws, small shops, street food and the many small kindnesses of a journey.
- How much: it depends on your plans and how much you shop.
- Our guests' habit: a modest amount in small notes during the day, the rest in the hotel safe.
Travellers' cheques and foreign cash
Travellers' cheques: now very hard to use in India, so leave them at home.
- An emergency reserve: a small amount of US dollars, euros or pounds, changed at banks and authorised money changers in the cities.
- Foreign notes in shops: most will not accept them, and those that do give a poor rate.
A day of small payments
That is a typical day: a card for the big things, small notes for the many small ones, and the occasional moment of generosity that people remember long after you have gone.
Morning
Sunrise at Hawa Mahal: the chai on the rooftop opposite costs a few small coins, in cash.
- At Amber: your guide has the tickets, and the musician playing in the courtyard gets a note if you stop to listen.
- The temple on the way down: a coin for the shoe-minder, and perhaps a note in the donation box.
- Lunch: at your hotel, on the room bill.
Afternoon and evening
Bagru: the block printers take a card for the bedspread you fall in love with.
- The walled city: the cycle rickshaw through the lanes is paid in cash, with a tip because the lanes are steep.
- The lassi stall: cash or a QR code.
- Dinner on a palace terrace: on the card, with a quiet word of thanks and a tip for the waiter who remembered how you take your tea.
Getting cash
Where: ATMs are common in Jaipur, Udaipur, Jodhpur and the other cities, and in most towns.
Which ones: machines inside banks, hotels, airports or shopping centres, ideally by day. Most accept international cards.
- ATMs
- Common in cities and most towns
- Safest machines
- Inside banks, hotels, airports
- Withdrawal limits
- Often low, fees may apply
- Scarce in
- Desert villages, Jawai, between cities
- Best rates
- Banks and authorised changers
- Limits and fees: each withdrawal is often capped quite low, so you may need more than one, and both your bank and the Indian bank may charge.
- Off the grid: in desert villages, Jawai or on the road between cities, ATMs are scarce or empty, so carry enough before you set off.
- Airport counters: convenient for your first rupees, though rates are not the best.
- Better rates: banks and authorised money changers in the cities, and some hotels change money for guests.
- At the counter: count your notes before you leave, and keep the receipt.
- Lost card: call your bank at once and tell your planner. We can help with cash until a replacement arrives. See our health and safety guide.
Money from city to desert
In the cities
Plenty of everything: ATMs, banks and money changers in Jaipur, Udaipur, Jodhpur and the other cities.
- Cards: widely accepted in hotels, restaurants and good shops.
- Still carry: small notes for the bazaars, rickshaws and temples.
In holy towns
Cash is king: in Pushkar, Nathdwara and around the dargah at Ajmer, the day is spent on foot among small shops, flower sellers and shrines.
- Small notes: for offerings and shoe-minders.
- Donations: into official boxes.
In the desert
Jaisalmer town: ATMs and card machines.
- Beyond it: the dunes, desert villages and camps have none.
- Your camp bill: it can be settled by card, but bring cash for musicians, camel men and anything you buy from villagers on the way.
In the wildlife parks and village forts
Few ATMs: around Ranthambore, Jawai and the village forts of Marwar and Mewar, and sometimes empty.
- Bills and tips: your lodge or fort takes cards for the bill, but tips for naturalists, jeep drivers and staff are usually in cash.
- Plan ahead: draw what you need in the last city before you arrive.
What you pay for along the way
Arranged before you arrive: your hotels, chauffeur, guides, the experiences we arrange and any internal flights or trains are agreed and paid in advance.
What is left: shopping, tips, meals and drinks not included at your hotels, spa treatments, and any extra outings you decide on.
- Paid in advance
- Hotels, chauffeur, guides, flights, trains
- Paid as you go
- Shopping, tips, extras, spa
- Monuments
- Higher fees for foreign visitors
- Bills
- Often shown before tax
- Service charge
- Should not be compulsory
- No surprises: we explain exactly what is included in your quote. See what a luxury Rajasthan journey costs.
- Monument fees: foreign visitors usually pay more than Indian citizens, and some sites charge separately for cameras.
- Tickets: your guide handles them, and they are often included in your journey. Many important monuments take cards or sell tickets online.
- Tax: hotel bills and menus often show prices before goods and services tax, added at the end. Ask if you are unsure.
- Service charge: under India's consumer guidelines it should not be compulsory. If one has been added, you don't need to tip on top unless you want to.
Bargaining in the bazaars
Where to bargain
Yes: bazaars, street stalls and small family shops, where prices are often open to friendly negotiation.
- No: fixed-price shops, department stores, government emporiums, hotel boutiques and restaurants, where bargaining would be strange.
- Not sure: ask politely whether the price is fixed.
How to bargain kindly
Look first: browse before you buy, so you have a feel for prices.
Decide your number: what the thing is worth to you.
- The dance: ask the price, smile and offer a lower one. Expect to meet somewhere in between.
- Walk away: be good humoured and ready to leave, which often brings the best offer.
- Keep your word: once you agree a price, it is bad manners to back out.
- Be generous: don't haggle hard with people who clearly earn little, such as a fruit seller or a cycle rickshaw driver.
Commission shopping
How it works: many drivers, guides and touts are paid a commission for bringing visitors to particular shops, which raise prices to pay for it.
- Our rule: our guides and drivers are paid never to do this.
- Say no: politely, to any cousin's factory or special showroom you did not ask for.
- How we shop: our shopping guide, and our crafts page on working with artisans directly.
Gems, jewellery, rugs and shipping
Who to buy from: long-established family jewellers or shops we recommend, never someone who approaches you in the street.
The receipt: detailed, describing the stone, its weight and any treatment.
Certificates: for valuable stones, ask for one from an independent gem testing laboratory. Jaipur has respected laboratories for exactly this.
- The classic scam: never agree to carry gems out of India for someone else to sell. It always ends badly.
- Read first: our guides to gems and jewellery and buying jewellery in Rajasthan.
- Shipping home: good shops ship rugs, furniture, textiles and other large purchases for you.
- Get it in writing: the item, the price, the shipping cost and the expected delivery, and pay by card where you can.
- Duties at home: customs duties and taxes may be charged in your own country when the parcel arrives.
- Rugs: our note on how to buy a rug explains what to look for.
Tipping, person by person
Customary, never compulsory: a tip should reflect how well you have been looked after.
- Chauffeur
- Once, at the end of the journey
- Local guides
- End of each day or city
- Hotel staff
- The staff tip box
- Restaurants
- A tip is welcome if no service charge is added
- Safari
- Naturalist and jeep driver, end of stay
- No figures here: sensible amounts change with time and depend on the length of your journey.
- Our tipping guide: we send every guest a suggested guide with their final documents, updated each season, so you can plan ahead and never feel unsure.
Your chauffeur
- One tip at the end: your driver is with you for the whole journey, so the usual custom is a single tip based on the number of days.
- Beyond the call: if he waited late or found the perfect chai stop, it is lovely to say so with a little more.
Your guides
- Local guides: usually tipped at the end of each day or each city, more for a full day than a half day.
- Specialists: naturalists, historians and cooks who teach a class are tipped the same way.
Hotel staff
The tip box: many heritage and palace hotels have one at reception, shared among the whole team, including kitchen and laundry staff you never see.
- Often the fairest way: to thank everyone at once.
- Individuals too: the butler, the porter who carried your bags up a steep fort ramp, or the waiter who looked after you every evening.
Restaurants
- Good restaurants: a tip is welcome if no service charge has been added. The tipping guide we send you suggests amounts.
- Dhabas and street stalls: rounding up the bill is kind.
On safari
- Naturalist and driver: at Ranthambore and Jawai it is customary to tip both, usually at the end of your stay.
- Lodge guidance: lodges such as SUJAN Sher Bagh often have their own.
Boatmen, porters and musicians
- Always welcome: a small tip for a boatman on Lake Pichola, a licensed porter at a station, a camel man in the dunes or the musicians who play at your dinner.
- Folk musicians: they often depend on these tips for a living.
Shoe-minders and small helpers
Temples: the person minding your shoes expects a small coin or note.
- Others: the washroom attendant, and the boy who runs to fetch tea.
- Why small notes matter: these are the moments they matter most.
How to give a tip
Tip in rupees: foreign coins cannot be exchanged in India, and foreign notes are awkward for the person receiving them.
Right hand, with thanks: or both hands. Dhanyavaad or shukriya will be warmly received.
- An envelope: for your driver and guides at the end of the journey. It is discreet, and how many Indian families give gifts of money.
- Give directly: to the person you want to thank, or to the staff box, rather than leaving it for someone else to pass on.
- Tell us too: if someone has been exceptional. Good words reach the whole team and matter as much as money.
- No pressure: if someone demands a tip for a service you did not ask for, you can politely say no.
Gifts of money, weddings and festivals
Shagun: in India a gift of money is called shagun, and the extra rupee is said to make the gift a beginning rather than an end.
If you are invited: to a wedding, birthday or family celebration, an envelope of new notes with the amount ending in one is a perfectly proper gift.
- Shagun
- A gift of money
- Amounts
- End in one: 101, 501, 1,001
- Why the one
- A beginning, not an end
- Diwali
- A little extra for helpers
- New notes: banks sometimes sell crisp ones for exactly this before the wedding season.
- Diwali: around Diwali, Indian households give a little extra to the people who help through the year. Staff, guides and drivers working through the festival will be touched if you remember them.
- At the great fairs: at the Pushkar Camel Fair, keep extra small notes for musicians, performers and offerings, and larger amounts safely away from the crowds.
- A puja or a priest: a donation is expected, but the amount is yours. Your guide can tell you what is appropriate, quietly and without pressure.
Keeping money safe
In the safe: most of your cash, a spare card and your passport. Carry only what you need for the day.
Two places: divide your daily cash between a wallet and an inside pocket, with small notes easy to reach.
- Your bag: one that closes, worn across your body and in front of you in crowds.
- ATMs: inside banks, hotels and airports, by day, with the keypad covered.
- Check: count your change, and make sure your card comes back after each payment.
- Be discreet: don't show large amounts of cash when paying in a busy bazaar.
- If anything goes missing: tell your guide or planner at once. We help with the police, the bank and replacement cash.
Giving, donations and doing good
Begging: near temples, at traffic lights and in tourist spots you will see people, including children, asking for money. It is hard to see, and everyone handles it differently.
Not to children: we ask guests not to give money, sweets or pens to children, because it can keep them out of school and on the streets.
- Temple offerings: into the official donation box, not to people who approach you on the steps.
- Spend where it reaches people: with artisans in their own workshops, at village homestays, with folk musicians and small family businesses.
- Schools and charities: we can suggest local ones whose work we know.
- How we do it: our page on travelling responsibly and our note on the artisans we work with.
Money, in short
Rupees on arrival: from an ATM or exchange counter, and ask for small notes whenever you can.
Cards: in hotels, restaurants and big shops, and tell your bank you are travelling.
- Cash every day: for tips, temples, rickshaws and small shops.
- Bargain kindly: in the bazaars, not in fixed-price shops, and avoid commission showrooms.
- Gems and jewellery: buy from trusted jewellers, get a detailed receipt and never carry stones for anyone else.
- Tip in rupees, with thanks: guides, drivers, hotel staff and helpers. We send you a suggested tipping guide.
- Stay safe: valuables in the safe, your bag in front in crowds.
- Read more: our Rajasthan travel guide and our etiquette guide.